This is going to go down in the saga of politican corruption on a level of Boss Tweed of New York and Tom Pendergast of Kansas City. To this dynamic histroy we can add the Florida legislature.

“…A handful of legislators were so hell-bent on turning state prisons over to private companies they tried to sneak it into the 2011 budget only to be slapped down by a judge.

Undeterred, they tried to change laws in 2012 to make it easier to pass. They rigged Senate committees to squash opposition. They hid $25 million in potential costs to the state. I’m not sure, but they may have even suggested the redemption at Shawshank was due to privatization….”

And there is the Geo Group that is fueling the process. “The GEO Group is a world leader in providing diversified services to government agencies around the globe. We offer high-quality, cost-effective services in the areas of correctional and detention management community residential re-entry services, and residential treatment through state-of-the-art designs, innovative programs and ground-breaking treatment approaches. We provide the highest quality facility operations for federal, state, and local clients within the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and South Africa.”